The Year in American Soccer - 1949

The American Soccer League

Entering its 16th season, the ASL had accomplished what no other professional league had in America: not only remain in existence, but also remain relatively stable in the process. Although minor clubs continued to come and go, the core franchises-Brookhattan, New York Americans, Baltimore Americans, Brooklyn Hispano, Brooklyn Wanderers, Philadelphia Americans, and Philadelphia Nationals-returned year after year. Also, the league at least attempted to court a mainstream audience by toning down the ethnic nicknames: although Brooklyn Hispano continued to use their nickname, other clubs were either named "Americans" or "Nationals"; a new franchise from Trenton, New Jersey, adopted the name "Athletics".

However, cracks started to appear in the ASL foundation. Although the league continued to feature the best teams in the country (as exhibited by countless appearances in National Open Challenge Cup finals), it still never grew past the 2,000-3,000 stage in fan support. One result of this was, early in the 1948-49 season, Baltimore Americans being placed in escrow and replaced by Trenton. Champions only three years earlier, Baltimore never captured the hearts of the locals, and went under. Five of their talneted players moved on to Philadelphia Nationals, where they would make significant contributions.

More tellingly, Brooklyn Wanderers-an established franchise long considered the ASL’s physically toughest team-were in such dire financial straits that, one game into the season, the Graham family sold the club to a group called Hakoah (no relation to the famous Vienna club from which it took its name). Attempting to field an all-Jewish team, the new owners promptly dispersed all of the Wanderers players to the Brookhattan, Brooklyn Hispano, New York Americans, Kearny Celtic, and Kearny Americans clubs. After a less-than-stellar 3-10-0 finish, management decided to open enrollment and let the goyem back in for the 1949-50 season.

For all of the turmoil off the field, there was a rather colorful season on it. Kearny Celtic opened the season with a bang, but lost two early wins when one match against New York Americans was ordered replayed under protest and another win against Baltimore was voided when that club dropped out of the league. Brooklyn Hispano, buoyed by the return of caoch Duncan Othen, replaced Kearny at the top, but soon faded. By mid-October, manager Jimmy Mills’ Philadelphia Nationals-aided by the addition of the Baltimore players-went on a 13-game winning streak that moved them from the basement to first place.

Meanwhile, New York Americans, coached by Erno Schwartz lured Hall-of-Fame goalkeeper Stanley Chesney out of retirement and added 1948 MVP John O’Connell after his release from Hakoah. With O’Connell (who was moved from fullback to forward) and Jack Hynes scoring goals at a prolific rate, the A’s climbed into a three-way tie with the Nationals and Brooklyn Hispano by season’s end. Due to a three-way tie for first place, the ASL had to adopt a playoff system to determine the year’s champion. New York defeated Brooklyn in a 4-nil rout for the right to play the Nats in the final.

The final itself was one of the most exciting in league history. Paired with an international match featuring Belfast Celtic, the two clubs were tied at 3-3 before the match had to be suspended to allow the foreigners to play. At the conclusion of that match, Philadelphia and New York again took the pitch, but were unable to resolve the draw. Philadelphia Nationals were awarded the title on the margin of a single corner kick.

Philadelphia Nationals completed a "mini-double" by going undefeated through the Lewis Cup, defeating Kearny Celtic for the crown, only the third time such a "mini-double" had been completed (the other two being the 1940 Kearny Scots and 1945 Brookhattan teams). Philadelphia just missed a "triple", advancing to the National Open Challenge Cup finals before being edged by the Morgan (PA) club, 4-3.

Philadelphia’s success was even more impressive as the Nationals were a virtually all-American club. Outside of reserve Ed McIlveney, who was from Scotland, the club was entirely made up of native-born players. Among the stars on the Nationals roster were Walt Bahr, Benny McLaughlin, and Nick Kropfelder. Still, in an era when soccer was still scene as an "immigrant’s game," the Nationals success went virtually unnoticed. It would be another quarter century before another team-ironically, also from Philadelphia-would have similar success with such a heavily-native side.

John O’Connell, having made the conversion from defender to forward so succesfully, was named league MVP by the Soccer News; for the second consecutive year, Philadelphia Nats midfielder Walt Bahr was the runner-up, a mere two points behind O’Connell. Bernie McLaughlin and Tom Oliver, also of the Nats, finishd third and fourth in the voting. Pito Villanon of Brookhattan, one of the first African-American players to play in the ASL, won the league scoring title with 17 goals.

More foreign teams visited under the ASL aegis in 1949: Belfast Celtic (Northern Ireland), Newcastle United (England), Kamraterna (Sweden), Milano (Italy) and the Scottish national team staged exhibitions on these shores and were, predictably, dominant: Newcastle went 10-0, while Milano was undefeated in 6 matches. Also, for a change, an American club went overseas: New York Americans went to Cuba, tying two matches and losing one.

Finally, soccer fans could view Soccer: The Universal Game, released by Pan-American Films of Hollywood.

National Soccer League (Chicago)

The 1949 season was an exciting one, with PAAC completing an undefeated season in the Major division, and Swedish Americans likewise going lossless in the First Division-South. Milwaukee Tigers brought up the lead in the First division-North. The tigers and Swedish Americans gained promotion into the Major division, replacing former NASFL standouts Chicago Maroons and Wisla.

The NSL created a bit of soccer history this year when they established the first successful indoor soccer league. The league, which would begin play in january 1950, was able to get regular weekly full coverage on local television via WBKB-TV.

German-American Soccer League (New York)

The GASL had an unusually exciting season this year with hard fought championships right down to the wire in both the Big Ten and Premier divisions. The torrid races resulted in markedly increased attendance. Eintracht and Newark were the heavy favorites going into the season, and played tug-of-war with the league lead for much of the season before slow-starting Elizabeth found their form and ran away with the title. Pfaelzer also earned distinction by winning the New York State Association sponsored indoor tournament held at the Brooklyn 14th Street Armory.

Elizabeth won the Big ten title for the third straight year, going on to win the National Amateur Cup, and making it to the finals of the New jersey state cup, for a triple. Strong performances were also given by New York S.C., who though they failed to advance beyond the eastern regionals of the US Open Cup, did win the New York State Cup for the third straight season. The German-Hungarian reserves also had a spectacular season, winning the Reserve Division crown and the Dr. Manning Cup trophy.

The US National Team

The highlight of this year was the U.S. qualifying for the 1950 World Cuup by defeating Cuba in Mexico City. The U.S., although disappointed by third and second place finishes in the North American Confederation Cups of 1947 and 1949 respectively, qualified for the World Cup by virtue of its second round finish in the NAC of 1949. The team was managed by Bill Jeffrey of Penn State (whose 30 year record was unparalleled in collegiate soccer).

The US started 1949 with a 0-4 loss to Scotland in a disappointing friendly played on June 19 at Randalls Island, NYC. In the NAC Confederation Cup at Mexico City, the USA got off to a disappointing start, with a 0-6 loss to host Mexico on September 4, followed by a 1-1 draw with Cuba ten days later (Frank Wallace got the only goal), and a 2-6 loss to Mexico on September 18.

The final game was a convincing 5-2 victory over an over-matched Cuba at Mexico City, on September 21, 1949. The 5-2 triumph included goals by Walter Bahr, Frank Wallace, and two goals by Matevich. Jackie Hynes and Harry Keough provided strong support. At this time, just qualifying for the WC was a major triumph; little did the team know about the upset that would shock the world next year. One major source of satisfaction for the US was the fact that this team qualified despite having a team that was, except for three players, entirely composed of US citizens. The three foreigners were Captain Eddie McIlvenny, who later played for Manchester United and coached th Irish club Waterford, Larry Gaetjens, the Haitian center-forward who was to play a pivotal role to say the least in the US performance in next year's World Cup, and Joe Maca, a left-back who hailed from Belgum.

U.S. Open Cup

Morgan-Strasser of Western Pennsylvania, a defeated finalist on two earlier occasions, captured the Open Cup by defeating Philadelphia Nationals of the ASL in the two-leg final. The defeat prevented Philadelphia Nationals from matching the feat of New York Brookhattan, which won the ASL-Lewis Cup-Open Cup triple in 1945. Philadelphia Nationals had won the ASL and Lewis Cup titles, but came up short here.

Nick Kropfelder had given Philadelphia Nationals the lead after the first leg of the final, scoring the only goal of a 1-0 game at Holmes Stadium in Philadelphia on May 15. Two weeks later, Morgan took home the cup after a 4-2 victory in Pittsburgh.

Morgan had reached the final by beating Polish-American of Chicago, 2-1 and 3-0, in the two-leg western semifinal. Philadelphia Nationals won the eastern semifinal, 5-0, from New York Sport Club. The quarterfinals were Philadelphia Nationals 2, Brooklyn Hispano 1; New York Sport Club 3, Ludlow Lusitano 1; Morgan 3, Pittsburgh Cecil French 0, and Polish-American 5, St. Louis Zenthofer Furs 1.

University of Havana (Cuba) This college team played five intercollegiate games in the United States.

The College Game

This year, the first college Soccer Bowl was inaugurated. This game brought together the national designated champions Penn State and the University of San Francisco both of which had compiled perfect 8-0-0 records, on New Year's Day, 1950 at St. Louis. the game was a nailbiter, with Penn State's 14-game unbeaten streak on the line. USF lead for much of the game with two Dick Baptista goals. However, with only 10 seconds remaining, the Nittany Lions tied it up with a Harry Little goal off a penalty kick. The coaches agreed to let it stand as a draw. This Bowl made cross-country soccer a reality and helped to grow the sport in the Midwest and West.

This year also marked the inauguration of the Fred Holloway selection method to determine the All-America team, and was greatly valued for its objectivity. Overall, 27 teams were represented, with 9 represented on the first team. These numbers are impressive when one realizes that only slightly over 100 varsity soccer teams existed in 1949.

This year also saw a post-season all-star match promoted by the NSCAA and ISFAA. the 1948 All-American team battled the New York state amateur squad (consisting of players from the German-American and Metropolitan leagues) to a 2-2 draw. Meanwhile, the University of Havana conducted a tour of the US, defeating Maryland State, Harvard and Rensselaer Poly, before losing to Dartmouth 2-0, and then returning with a 1-0 victory over Connecticut.